


Amor Potio Numero Novem

by Welsh_Woman



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, Mild Dub Con Due To Potion Effects, Misunderstandings, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsh_Woman/pseuds/Welsh_Woman
Summary: Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski have been best friends throughout their Hogwarts Years, despite a rocky start and the involvement of the rest of the school, due to Stiles' 'evil Slytherin' status. It seems that friendship might be in trouble, though, due to a mishap in Potions that Derek is having a hard time remembering...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [57Harold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/57Harold/gifts).



Derek Hale starts his day finally knowing, for sure, that Stiles Stilinski was avoiding him.

After all, if a guy - a guy that has complained more than once that he is _not_ built for any sort of athletics - practically _sprints_ across the Great Hall so that he doesn’t bump into you, when your routine was to meet up and go to breakfast together, then Derek is pretty sure that person is avoiding you.

He doesn’t know  _why_ Stiles is avoiding him, as he thought that they had been getting close to becoming friends, despite all the rumors that flew around concerning the boy… and that wasn’t even going into the overused _Slytherin_ nonsense.

Granted, they hadn’t had the best of first impressions; Derek had been recovering from an unexpected reaction to all the fumes from his Potion class and Stiles had decided _that_ was the best time to introduce himself. Derek had been less than nice, and Stiles had been less than understanding, leading to more than a year of snarking and pranks before they had been strong-armed into being civil with each other even if they refused to be friends.

Scott McCall, Stiles’ best friend and a Gryffindor, had teamed up with Lydia Martin, the love of Stiles’ life and a fellow Slytherin, to make them see that their feud was just a mixture of stubbornness and bad timing. It unnerved Derek how well they had worked together, and he prayed that Lydia never grew ambitions past Mistress of Magic.

His unease had nothing to do with her House and more to do with the woman herself. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, _or_ Slytherin, she was downright _terrifying_ when she put her mind to something.

All of that was a great explanation for why Stiles ignored him in the beginning, but not why he was doing so _now_!

Frowning down at his porridge, Derek tries to think of what he might have done that made Stiles not want to be around him anymore.

He doesn’t think it was anything he said, as their banter has turned from biting insults to light teasing for more than three months now, and Derek is pretty sure that he wouldn’t do anything to slide back into the antagonistic back and forth they had before.

Derek knows that things have changed, because now that he isn’t fighting with Stiles every minute of every day, Derek had time to find out how funny Stiles is, how fiercely he loves the people closest to him, how smart the boy is.

In other words, Derek would have absolutely _zero_ reason to want to push Stiles away, as he has somehow managed to fall in love with Stiles… without him ever even noticing.

That is just another reason why Stiles’ enforced silence is such a problem; Derek has a secret, a secret that only a few members of the faculty know, and he’s been keeping from his fellow classmates for over seven years: he’s a werewolf.

While the stigmatism and outright _racism_ against any kind of Were’ has diminished over the years, there are still those who would see Derek attending the school as some sort of violation and he’s pretty sure a storm of Howlers would be the _least_ of his worries…

Derek has been rather stalwart in maintaining his control during his time at Hogwarts, a few slip-ups here and there notwithstanding, but all of that changed the day Stiles Stilinski barreled into his life.

Now here he is, with no Pack to help him focus - Laura has already graduated and Cora has stated multiple times that she has no time for her brother’s ‘overdramatic, annoying problems’ - and his more animalistic side whines at the strain on his anchor. Derek is now fighting for control in ways that have him using durability charms on his clothing every morning.

Yeah, Derek didn’t just fall in love with Stiles, he went and made the boy his _anchor_ , the very thing that kept him human and in control. Clearly, there was something wrong with him.

Frowning even more deeply down at his oatmeal in a way that makes his fellow Hufflepuffs whisper among themselves about whether or not someone should go talk to him, Derek pulls his mind back on track to what had made him go on a mental walk of the past few years in the first place: figuring out why Stiles was avoiding him and how he could fix it.

Looking back over the past week, Derek can’t really see anything that might have made Stiles so angry that he stopped talking to him, aside from a slight blank spot after Potions on Friday.

He always had a problem with Potions: because of his advanced senses, the fumes from Potions usually led to headaches or stomachaches, but nothing so bad as the blank void that had been sticking in Derek’s mind no matter how hard he tries to fix it.

When asking his fellow Hufflepuffs and even a few Slytherins about it, they had giggled a little bit, but said that Derek didn’t really do anything bad enough to turn himself into their Head of House. While that was comforting, perhaps he should have asked if he did anything that would have upset _Stiles_ specifically.

Well, all the possibilities of embarrassment depended on the potion, right? It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it was a Pepper-Up Potion, or a Sleeping Draught; the worse he could have done with those is have steam billowing out of his ears or snore  _really_  loudly, both things that Stiles would undoubtedly tease him for,  _not_ avoid him.

Rubbing a hand down his face, Derek mentally goes through the syllabus to figure out which potion they were working on this week. While most potions only had the effects they were patented for, due to Derek’s more… animalistic side, there were other effects to consider and Slughorn always made sure he knew the entire year’s course ahead of time.

It was worth the extra paperwork he needed to memorize to prevent another incident like the one that happened in Second Year… the same year that he met Stiles, as a matter of fact.

Now they had finished with the Wolfsbane Potion (Derek was rather smug about it, having made the potion so many times he could possibly do it in his sleep), had that pop quiz about the various properties, had done several classes on various other potions that affect one’s form or senses, so that meant-

Derek’s head jerks up and he stares unseeing at the opposite end of the Great Hall, unknowingly startling one of his Housemates back to their seat as the uncomfortable truth settles in his mind.

The next potion they had been planning on was Amortentia, the _love potion_.

But that didn’t make any _sense_ , because he wouldn’t ingest any and the most that would’ve happened from breathing in all those fumes was feeling more affectionate than normal, so that-

Sudden pain splits Derek’s thoughts, making him grab at his head as a memory flashes to the forefront of his mind:

_Stiles grins over at Derek, potion bubbling happily away in front of him and slowly lightening into the pale pink that the directions call for._

_“Looks like that potion last week was just a fluke, Hale! **My** potion is just about done, while **yours** looks like you’ve barely even started!”_

_Derek merely rolls his eyes, feeling too good to be really snarky, but not one to let one of Stiles’ brags go by without comment. “You’re **really** competitive, aren’t you? I do better than you **one time** and I never hear the end of it!”_

_Stiles sniffs out a comment about defending his Potions cred,_ _before taking a sip out of the goblet at his elbow._

_“You know Slughorn is going to give you detention if he sees you have food in here, Potions prodigy or not.”_

_“Not if you keep your mouth shut!” Stiles makes his point with the end of his stirring spoon, sending droplets of potion everywhere even as he yelps and tries to contain the mess. “You know all these fumes make my mouth go dry, Mr. Has-A-Sneezing-Fit-Nearly-Every-Class!”_

_Huffing out a breath, Derek focuses on his own potion, which has finally started to lighten in color. “I’m not going to be the one that gets Slughorn’s attention, **you’re** the one that’s making a mess and bringing food where it shouldn’t be!”_

_“Aw, it’s okay, Der-Bear! I know you’re just jealous because you know that there’s pumpkin juice in here instead of the sodas I usually bring!”_

_“How do you-”_

_“That all powerful sniffer of yours, of course! Almost as soon as I came in, you took one whiff and made your pumpkin-juice-happy-face!”_

_Derek wonders what that looks like, and how Stiles can’t tell that it’s really his Stiles-is-finally-here-happy-face. “Please don’t ever call it that again.”_

_“Should I just call it your happy face, then?”_

_“No.”_

_“Don’t be grumpy now, Der-Bear, especially since I’m going to share my drink with you!”_

_Stiles picks up his goblet and holds it out to Derek, a strangely vulnerable expression on his face that makes Derek pause._

_Sharing food is a bit of a thing for werewolves, so much so that even eating meals with his Housemates has his wolf thinking of them as Hogwarts-pack. While it’s not as strong a pull as his **actual** pack, it’s still something that keeps him calm on bad days._

**_This_ ** _, though…_

_This is Stiles **specifically** handing Derek something to drink, something that Stiles has commented on being one of his **favorite things** more than once and it makes the wolf in Derek perk up in approval, despite him trying not to be weird about accepting a goblet of juice._

_Quickly snatching the goblet before Stiles can see how his hands are shaking, Derek downs the whole thing in one go, making sure to lick his lips at Stiles when he states, “At least now Slughorn won’t throw you in detention for breaking his rules.”_

_Stiles throws his head back in laughter and Derek is momentarily distracted by the long, pale column of his neck, an itch beneath his gums telling him to lean forward and **bite** -_

“Mr. Hale?”

Jerking out of his thoughts, Derek is surprised to see that most of the Great Hall is empty now and Professor McGonagall is looking at him with an expression of stern concern.

“Classes are just about to start, I suggest that you make your way to the greenhouses before too long.”

Not bothering to ask how she knew what class he had, Derek nods at McGonagall before grabbing his bag and making his way onto the Hogwarts grounds, barely making it to Greenhouse Four before his Herbology class started.

Thankfully, they were cultivating Shrivelfigs for the day, so Derek could allow his mind to wander without worrying about a possible angry plant punishing him for his inattention.

It’s not until he’s finished peeling his fifth Shrivelfig that the realization hits him: the way that Stiles had flung his spoon when trying to make a point, and the strange sweetness that the pumpkin juice had, leading up to the way that Derek had wanted to _mark_ Stiles...

He _had_ consumed some of the potion, accidentally on Stiles’ part, and that is probably why he was avoiding Derek and why his classmates had giggled when he asked them what had happened. He had no doubt confessed how he felt to Stiles and even probably made some very overt innuendos, making Stiles uncomfortable enough that he was now doing everything in his power to keep from interacting with Derek.

Barely missing the pile of Shrivelfigs in front of him, Derek thumps his head down on the table, embarrassed and desperate to think of some way to get his friend back, even going as far as to say what had happened was simply the potion’s influence…

No matter how much the thought pained him.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek ignores the looks from the Slytherins leaving their common room. They’re used to him hanging around because of Stiles, but still surprised whenever he shows up.

He doesn’t really have time to give them any thought right now, as he’s more focused on making sure that he catches Stiles before he leaves for breakfast and another day of ignoring Derek entirely.

After his revelation during Herbology, Derek had _tried_ to talk to Stiles, to apologize for whatever he did under Amortentia’s influence, but it seemed like he had been gifted with all the secrets the Weasley twins had during their years here. It didn’t matter if he was only a hallway away, or a classroom, as soon as Derek tried to catch Stiles, the boy was gone faster than a whiff of smoke.

So, Derek decides to take drastic measures, planning to wake up early and catch Stiles coming out of the Slytherin common room, an idea that was reinforced by the dream he had last night…

Sighing heavily, Derek keeps scanning the faces heading down to the Great Hall as his mind drifts back to what he’s now sure are the memories that he has been trying so hard to summon, showing him that he has a far bigger problem than just making a fool out of himself to contend with:

_Derek feels a little foggy as he set the goblet down, eyes still on Stiles’ neck as the boy realizes something is wrong, his eyes going from gleeful to concerned._

_“Hey, dude. Are you okay?”_

_Derek’s wolf practically purrs at the concern, even as Derek rushes to reassure Stiles. “I’m fine, promise. It’s just… are you sure that was pumpkin juice?”_

_Stiles’ brows get frownier, making Derek suddenly want to reach out and smooth out the skin between them. “Yeah, I made sure of it when I asked the house elves for a drink. Why?”_

_“It tasted… sweeter, somehow? Like… not pumpkin, but more minty? With a hint of dark chocolate and… I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s like when you can smell the rain before it falls? Like water, but sharper… Stronger… It’s sort of how I imagined you would taste.”_

_There is utter silence at the end of Derek’s little speech, reminding him that they were sharing the table with another pair of students._

_Derek turns away from Stiles’ wide eyes and dropped jaw - which he really should close because Derek is getting **ideas** and he doesn’t… well, he **does** , but he wants to find out what kissing Stiles is like first and he needs to **focus** – to lean toward Scott, who’s looking at him with the exact same expression as Stiles, and Lydia, whose own gaze is far more speculative._

_“Do you get what I’m saying?”_

_Scott makes a kind of choked off noise at that, face blooming red as he stammers out, “Uh, I’ve n-never wanted to li- uh, **taste** Stiles before, so… not really?”_

_Stiles’ sudden “Oh, shit!” almost overcomes Lydia’s soft, “Well, this complicates things.” Her comment niggles at Derek’s mind even as he turns to Stiles frantic form, hands dancing over the air as he snatches the goblet back, placing it in a dry circle amid a slightly damp part of his side of the table._

_“Shit!”_

Derek knows now that Stiles has realized what happened to Derek last Friday, that his flailing had managed to spill his Amortentia into his goblet, but all that was in potion-up-Derek’s head at the time was the need to comfort Stiles and try to make him not be upset… and it turned out that doped-Derek’s first thought on how to do that is **_snuggling_**.

All in all, he’s grateful that Stiles’ reaction to an armful of Derek was to ask Slughorn if Stiles could bring him to the Hospital Wing, instead of throwing him to the floor. Derek is pretty embarrassed by how he just _shoved_ himself into Stiles’ space without asking. He would punch his past self, potion or not, if Time-Turners weren’t strictly outlawed.

The next few minutes are still foggy, a cloudy sensation that only seems to clear whenever Derek looks at Stiles, so he has no idea how close they made it to the Hospital Wing before Derek suddenly pulls them into an empty classroom and locks the door behind them.

_Derek is filled with an overwhelming urge to **talk** to Stiles, **needs** to let him know about the feelings that have been simmering in his chest almost as soon as they had met; it was part of the reason he was so angry with him the beginning. How could someone so **infuriating** cause him to feel **so much**?!?_

_Stiles, on the other hand, looks extremely tense and keeps glancing at the door behind Derek like he’s the only thing that’s keeping Stiles from bolting at the first chance he gets._

_Pocketing his wand and holding his hands out, Derek moves away from the door and leans against one of the desks in the classroom, heart aching in sympathy at the rapid uptick in_ _Stiles’ pulse._

_“You can leave if you want to.” Derek promises, ignoring the whine that wants to be let free at those words. He’s more concerned with Stiles calming down and getting him to listen to what Derek needs to say. “It’s more to keep people from interrupting than to keep you from leaving.”_

_“While I’m really digging open and honest Derek, we **really** need to get you to the Hospital Wing.” Stiles’ lips twitch into a facsimile _ _of a smile, his own hands out like he thinks Derek is some kind of frightened creature that’ll spook if he moves too fast. “Madam Pomfrey will fix you up and then you can tell me whatever it is that you don’t want anyone else to hear, alright?”_

_“I feel fine, Stiles, better than fine!” Derek smiles, happy that what is distressing Stiles is something that he could easily fix. “You don’t have to worry about me being sick. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, or part of it, because it’s really important that we start this with no secrets between us-”_

_“Wait, ‘start this’? What are we- No, no, you’re not distracting me with this! The only thing that we need to start is our happy way down that hallway and into Madam Pomfrey’s healing arms-”_

_“I don’t need Madam Pomfrey, Stiles! I’m a **werewolf** , we don’t **get** sick!”_

“Oh my god!”

Stiles makes his exclamation right as Derek spots him, giving him time to actually catch Stiles by the arm before the boy can dart away, gathering a few looks from the stragglers that followed Stiles out of the common room.

“Oh, man. What did you do to piss off Hale _now_?” A random voice calls, sounding way too pleased with the thought that Stiles might be injured in the near future. “I thought you two were _friends_!”

“Shut it, Daehler! This is none of your business!”

The look on Stiles’ face says that he wished it wasn’t any of _his_ business either, his eyes skittering around the hall still looking for an escape route. Derek just tightens his grip a bit to pull Stiles’ attention back to himself as he practically growls, “We need to talk.”

He’s _tired_ , okay? He’s tired of trying to find out where Stiles is hiding, tired of his owls being sent back unopened, tired of trying to send messages through Stiles’ friends and he was just so bloody _tired_ of feeling like there’s a hole in his chest every time his attempts at talking to one of his _best friends_ is rebuffed.

If Stiles wanted to stop hanging out with him because he is a werewolf, then he would have to say it to Derek’s face instead of this dodging bullshit. Yeah, running away sent the message pretty clearly, but Derek deserves to hear the truth from Stiles’ own mouth.

Their _friendship_ deserved that.

Slumping in Derek’s hold as he realizes that there isn’t anywhere for him to run, or maybe that he’s just as tired of running as Derek is of chasing him, Stiles nods and sighs. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. But… not here? Can we just… go somewhere else?”

Swallowing hard against the knot in his stomach, Derek finally releases Stiles and watches very closely as he leads the way down the hallways and into a room that Derek is sure wasn’t there that morning.

With an attempt at his usual energy, Stiles practically pulls Derek into the room and locks it behind them, almost a complete mimic of what Derek did last Friday night. Stiles even go so far as to mutter, “Don’t want anyone interrupting us.”

There are a few differences since that night and now, however; Stiles looks completely displeased standing across from Derek. Derek is pretty sure that he’s going to be the first werewolf in the world to get an ulcer, and he’s also sure that he’s going to leave this room even worse off than when he entered it.

Nonetheless, Derek squares his shoulders and focuses his gaze on Stiles, who seems overly invested in the floor. He waits for the boy to either tell him that they aren’t friends anymore or come up with some other explanation for avoiding him for a week and a half.

“I take it you remember everything?”

Swallowing hard, Derek releases a gruff, “Yeah” as he tries to keep from smelling Stiles’ emotions. Despite how it might make this so much easier to figure out, there have been too many times when the way someone smelt and the way they acted didn’t match for that to work in Derek’s favor.

“ ** _Shit_**.”

Derek is drawn out of his thoughts by Stiles’ exclamation, surprised to see him looking like he does for the majority of March, when Stiles is missing his mom most: his eyes are wide and wet, lips bitten and even now are being worried at by his teeth, and he looks as if the past week as been as restful for him as it has been for Derek.

It causes that heavy feeling in Derek’s stomach to sink even further, the sense that something is about to go wrong becoming stronger and stronger the longer Stiles doesn’t say anything beyond his curse.

Stiles has never had a problem talking before, could sprout off any and all thoughts that happened to pass through his mind, so the fact that he can’t speak _now_?

Derek tries to think of something to say, some way to head off the catastrophe before it happens, but despite trying for so long to get Stiles to even _look_ at him, Derek can’t think of a single thing to say.

In the end, it is fittingly Stiles that breaks the silence.

He lifts his eyes from the floor and meets Derek’s gaze head-on, shoulders drawn back and back straight, almost like he is about to begin a Duel. Derek, for all that he wanted to talk with Stiles and figure out where things stood between the two of them, is filled with a sudden urge to keep Stiles from speaking.

“I’ve spent the past week trying to forget what you told me, thinking that if I didn’t hang out with you, it might be easier. It didn’t work. All I could think of was how what you said changed _everything_. I didn’t want to admit that, because you only said it under a potion’s influence, but it _does_ , Derek. It changes everything _because_ I can’t forget you said it and I don’t think I can look at you the same anymore. I’m sorry.”

Stiles throws his hands out as if to say, ‘yeah, that’s about it’ and Derek…

Derek tries to remember how to breathe and come to terms with the fact that he has lost someone he cares about, simply because of a part of himself that he can not change and does not want to.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **UPDATE:** This has been betaed by the lovely [Bri!](http://www.hostileblackwriter.tumblr.com) She's the best and I love that she puts up with my craziness while making these stories be less of a mess!!!
> 
> Explanation for the dub-con in the end notes!

Stiles seems to be waiting on Derek for a reaction of some kind, a comment or statement that he can act off of, but Derek can’t really do _anything_ right now and just continues to stare blankly in front of him.

“Derek? Hey, are you okay?”

The laugh that follows that question is ugly and Derek cuts it off as soon as he sees the way that Stiles steps back at hearing it, still trying to make him feel better even after he admitted… that he thinks…

“Come on, man, I know you’re the king of brooding silences, but you have to give me something to go on here!”

Those words cause a sudden anger to broil in Derek’s stomach, the _audacity_ that Stiles has thinking he is owed some kind of _acceptance_ or reassurance because he’s disgusted by Derek’s _very being_.

“What do you want me to say, Stiles?” Derek’s lips curl back into a snarl, keeping his fangs held back, but just barely. “Do you want me to _thank you_ for not being able to handle this?”

“What the hell?” Stiles loses the concern that was in his voice just a moment ago, crossing his arms in front of his chest and glaring at Derek from narrowed eyes. “I’m trying to do the right thing here and you’re yelling at me for it?!?”

“So, this is ‘the right thing’ now? It has nothing to do with the fact that you apparently ‘can’t look at me the same’ anymore?” Derek’s own hands are clenched into fists at his side, and he can feel his claws cutting into his palms, but he can’t seem to stop. “I’m touched by your concern for my wellbeing.”

Stiles’ eye twitches at Derek’s comment and the way his fingers are flexing means he’s strongly considering reaching for his wand; Derek remembers that move from their first heated interactions with each other, but the fact that they’ve fallen back to that doesn’t make him sad this time.

Oh, no. He just gets _pissed_.

“Look.” The steady note in Stiles’ voice tells Derek that he’s having the same problem keeping his temper as Derek, which makes him feel viciously pleased that he isn’t the only one feeling like shit. Then Derek remembers the reason _why_ Stiles is pissed and just gets angry all over again. “I get that you’re upset that you admitted to something under a potion’s influence, and I would want to forget that it ever happened if it was me, but I _can’t_ forget it and I’m just asking you not to be an asshole about me trying to wrap my head around it! I mean, wouldn’t _you_ need a little time to get used to finding out that about _me_?”

“I wouldn’t _avoid you_ for nearly a week and then _blame you_ for something that happened out of your control!”

Wincing at that last bit, even going as far as to give Derek a ‘fair enough’ kind of gesture, Stiles rubs a hand over his face before muttering, “Man, everything is so screwed up now… I’m really starting to wish you hadn’t said anything at all…”

Just like that, all the fight leaves Derek’s form and he starts to move forward, swallowing down bile when Stiles flinches away from him. Shaking his head, he reaches for the door, forgetting that Stiles had locked it until the first tug, and curses at himself as he twists the lock open a bit more viciously than called for.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I got the answer I was looking for and you’ll never have to look at me at all, anymore.” He should leave, he’s got the door opened and all he has to do is step out of the hall and away from the hold Stiles Stilinski has over his heart.

It seems he needs to dig the dagger a little bit deeper though, because he turns to where Stiles is standing in the corner to ask (well, demand, really), “Out of everyone in this damn school, I thought you would- why does this bother you so much?”

“Ignoring the ‘out of everybody’ part of that-which, thank you for that vote of confidence, really does a number on my self-esteem…” Stiles huffs out a breath and looks at the far wall, arms finally dropping to his side as he states, “I just can’t do it, alright? I don’t know why that makes me a horrible person, but I just don’t see how-”

“I get it.” Derek doesn’t want to hear the reason Stiles has for hating werewolves, the justification that sounds so right to him. Derek doesn’t know how he misjudged Stiles for so long, but there is one last thing he needs to ask before he leaves, “Can you not tell anyone else?”

“What?”

“I know you probably already told Scott…”

Is that where all of this anti-werewolf attitude came from? Derek shakes his head, knowing that Stiles is unlikely to go along with Scott unless he’s guilt tripped into it or wants to anyway.

Or, at least, that was what Derek thought of the Stiles he knew…

“I would just appreciate it if I could finish my last Year without Howlers from parents demanding that the werewolf be removed from Hogwarts because I’m a danger to their children.” There’s a sudden intake of breath beside him, but Derek focuses on keeping his feet under him so he can make it out of the room. “I would never hurt anyone, and I just… Just don’t tell anyone, okay?”

Without bothering to see if Stiles will agree or not, Derek nods to himself and makes his way down the hallway, wondering if Professor Sprout will mind if he skips this class so that he can go back to the Hufflepuff common room and just anchor himself with his school-pack before he faces the rest of the day.

He barely makes it a few feet down the hall when there’s the sound of thundering steps behind him. Stiles’ erratic heartbeat is almost a cacophony all by itself, even before he opens his mouth and starts hollering down the hallway.

“Wait! Derek! Wait, _please_.”

What does he want now? He’s already thrown their friendship away, has shattered every hope that Derek had of them being more than friends, so he just speeds up and mentally laughs at the irony of Stiles being the one to chase after _him_ this time.

Deciding to use his uncanny knowledge of Hogwarts to catch up to Derek instead of running away from him, it seems like no time at all before Stiles has a hand on Derek’s arm, eyes as wide and face as flushed as that day in Potions.

“Derek, do you _seriously_ think that I can’t be around you because you’re a-” Stiles cuts himself off and darts a quick look around before leaning close and whispering, “- _a hairy chest enthusiast_?”

Derek wants to shake off the hand on his arm, wants to find someplace that he can just hide from the world and wallow, but Stiles is starting to look more shocked than angry, leaving Derek momentarily confused by the sudden mood swing.

“What else was I supposed to think when you ‘couldn’t look at me the same’ and spent the past week doing your damnedest to make sure you didn’t have to look at me _at all_?”

Stiles’ mouth moves like he wants to say something, eyes getting wider and wider as the moments pass, his fingers digging into Derek’s arm like they’re the only thing keeping him from floating off.

“Oh my god… Holy shit… _Oh my god_...!”

Not what he was expecting, and more than a little disturbing considering what they’re talking about, so Derek allows himself a moment to wonder just what in the hell is going on in Stiles’ brain instead of getting as far away as he could.

Stiles uses that moment of indecision to turn Derek towards him, bottom lip worried between his teeth and his voice almost impossibly soft as he whispers, “I think there has been a _major_ misunderstanding here, and I wanna fix it, so…”

Settling himself so he’s directly in front of Derek, Stiles fixes him with a look that says he isn’t going anywhere any time soon and asks, “Tell me what you remember from Friday.”

This time Derek is the one who flinches, giving Stiles a glare of his own before flatly stating, “I drank your pumpkin juice, which was doused with Amortentia, practically _dragged_ you away from Slughorn’s class-”

“I would say _I_ dragged _you_ away from Slughorn’s class…” Stiles puts his hands up when Derek’s glare narrows and his hand twitches to the wand on his hip. “Sorry, please go on.”

“-I then dragged you to the closest empty classroom and told you I was a werewolf, much to your obvious disgust.” Derek spits out the last of that as fast as he can, pulling his arm away from Stiles. He needs there to be space between the two of them. “Are we done now?”

“What happened after that?”

Derek shrugs, because his memory is still a bit faded after that. There’s a gap between telling Stiles his secret and waking up to Madam Pomfrey’s worried expression. “You took me to the Hospital Wing for the antidote and then left as fast as you possibly could.”

“No.”

Derek’s gaze darts over to Stiles and is a little startled by the grin pulling at the corner of his lips. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean exactly what I said. I didn’t bring you to Madam Pomfrey after that and I didn’t leave as soon as I brought you there.” Stiles suddenly looks nervous as he brings a hand to the back of his neck, a light blush blooming on his cheeks. “The, uh, werewolf thing wasn’t the only confession you made that night. Which was kinda useless because I, uh, know about that already.”

“What else did I say?” Derek decides to focus on one world-changing revelation at a time; if he focuses on Stiles already knowing about his secret-and what that meant about Stiles sharing his drink _knowing_ that-he’s going to end up in the Forbidden Forest for the next few days, howling his head off.

“You, uh… you said… you said that you loved me…” Stiles’ face grows even more miserable the longer he speaks, making a different kind of pain settle in Derek’s stomach. “Then you… you tried to kiss me.”

“Helga help me.” Derek mutters dropping his face into his hands, furiously rubbing them over his face as he tries to keep his emotions in check. “I’m _so_ sorry, Stiles.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” The light, I’m-completely-unaffected-by-all-of-this tone in Stiles’ voice tells Derek how very _not_ fine it all was. “I mean, you stopped right away when I asked you to, and I guess I got a little freaked out about my best friend trying to stick his tongue down my throat, so I needed a little time to get my head around the fact that it was just a potion- I mean!”

Derek is pretty sure that if Stiles’ eyes were any wider, they’d be in danger of falling out of his head, but he’s also sure that his expression isn’t any better. He’s curious if it was possible to get a heart condition from emotional whiplash.

“What do you mean. ‘it was just a potion’?” Derek flexes his fingers, unsure when he reached out for Stiles, but now gripping him almost as tightly as Stiles was him. “Was that what you were talking about? The thing that was making it so hard to look at me?”

“Come on, Derek.” The anger is starting to creep back into Stiles’ voice, but Derek can see it for the defense mechanism it is now. “You want me to admit I was having a tough time knowing that the only time I would ever hear that was while you were under the effects of a potion? How much I hated myself for thinking that way? That every time I saw you, all I could remember was how you looked when you-”

“I’m pretty sure that I’ve had a crush on you ever since the day you nearly ran into me after Potions in Second Year.”

It’s very rarely that Stiles doesn’t have a comeback for something, that his mouth isn’t moving a mile a minute, releasing everything from the ingredients to the Draught of Living Death to the breeding cycles of Mandrakes. Derek actually feels a little proud that he managed to make him completely speechless for a few moments.

But only a few minutes.

“You absolute _asshole_!” Stiles’ grip slips, then tightens, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to shove Derek or pull him close, his face twitching like it also didn’t know whether to be happy or pissed. “Why didn’t you say anything befo- Oh… It’s the werewolf thing, huh?”

Derek swallows before admitting, “Most people aren’t very happy to know they’ve been dating a _dog_ for so long.”

“You are _not_ a dog!” Stiles finally decides to pull Derek closer, before he stalls a bit. “You know that wasn’t the reason I was upset now, right? That I was completely fine with it and… that whole ‘sharing my drink’ thing was me trying to subtly ask you out, since my more obvious attempts weren’t working…”

“You flirt with nearly everyone! How was I supposed to tell when you’re serious?”

“I don’t call just anyone my brooding prince of moodiness!”

“No, you just call Lydia your ‘strawberry blonde Goddess’!”

The banter is familiar, welcomed after the silence of the past week, and the added benefit of being able to hold Stiles is just icing on the cake.

Derek knows that they still have a lot to talk about, a minefield of future arguments to get through, but right now he lets the heat of Stiles’ body push away the last of his doubts.

They’re going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUB-CON EXPLANATION: While under the effects of Amortentia, Derek tries to kiss Stiles. Stiles doesn't want him to and tells him to stop, which Derek complies to. Stiles bares Derek no ill will and is only slightly embarrassed recounting the incident to Derek later.
> 
> Thank you to fruchtgatsch/57Harold for the prompt of "Hufflepuff!Derek and Slytherin!Stiles, with Stiles making Amortentia and Derek accidentally drinking some". I hope I got close to what you wanted!


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